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Research

Boldly innovating to impact society and transform the world.

Northeastern University has achieved the prestigious recognition as a top-tier R1 institution for research activity among U.S. colleges and universities by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Our tradition of partnership and engagement guides a use-inspired and interdisciplinary research enterprise that is strategically aligned with three global imperatives: health, security, and sustainability. Our annual Annual Report highlights pioneering research and achievements over the past year.


The College of Engineering has over 235 tenured/tenure-track faculty, each bringing complementary areas of research expertise to address pressing global challenges. Their state-of-art-research looks at critical issues in materials, processes, systems, infrastructure, hardware and software at every scale—nano to macro to global—grounded in a translational approach that integrates the values of fundamental and applied research.

Our faculty boldly innovate by collaborating across engineering disciplines and the university, as well as with government, academia, and industry. The College of Engineering has more than 20 multidisciplinary research centers and institutes with funding from eight federal agencies. Our commitment to conducting transformative research to better the world can be seen by a 101% increase in external research funding from FY2017 to FY2023, and by an investment in research capabilities such as our 223,000 square foot, six-story Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex and 367,000 square foot, eight-story EXP facility for teaching and research.

Government and Industry Partnerships

Industry and government partner with Northeastern for basic and applied research. The reason is simple: they know that at Northeastern, our two guiding principles are interdisciplinary collaboration and engagement with the real world. These principles are reflected in our research programs, which are driven by critical issues in materials, processes, systems and infrastructure. Our research collaborations are a win-win-win: our partners receive knowledge and products tailored to their needs, our researchers validate and extend their work, and our students receive training and experience to become the next generation of effective technologists.


Research At-A-Glance

$118M

External Research Funding (FY2023)

20

Research Centers and Institutes

142

Young Investigator Awards (as of Aug. 2023)

154

Patents 2017-Aug. 2023


Recent News

AstraZeneca Admits Vaccine Can Cause Rare Blood-Clotting Condition

Bouvé/ChE University Distinguished Professor Mansoor Amiji gives insight into the risk of getting thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS, if you received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

NanoSystems Innovation Launch Party Kicks Off Bicoastal Collaboration

The Institute for NanoSystems Innovation, a first-of-its-kind research institute located on both U.S. coasts, is developing nano-scale technologies to drive innovation and miniaturization of chip-level technology advancements and applications. ECE Professor Matteo Rinaldi is the institute’s director and ECE Professor David Horsley is deputy director. 

Eduardo Sontag

Sontag Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

University Distinguished Professor Eduardo Sontag, ECE/BioE, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his career that has made breakthroughs in the mathematics of nonlinear and complex systems, with repercussions for biomedicine, systems biology, and neural networks.

Yi Zheng

Zheng Selected as 2024 NASA Glenn Faculty Fellow

MIE Associate Professor Yi Zheng was selected as a NASA Glenn Faculty Fellow. He will collaborate on a NASA project about the highly efficient Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) during the summer of 2024.